


What You Should Never Break

by tigerlilytree



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Memory Loss, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-11-30 07:12:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11458623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigerlilytree/pseuds/tigerlilytree
Summary: He was bitterly happy to forget. He didn't want their sorrow. He didn't want to know why he was there, or even why he didn't remember. He just wanted it all to quiet again. It made him wish he hadn't been born. It made him hate whoever it is they wanted back. It made him want to do everything in his power to ease their pain. But that wasn't possible.He couldn't help them. He wasn't Magnus Burnsides. He wasn't sure what he was.





	1. The Captive

**Author's Note:**

> after ep 67, the author had a breakthrough, and decided to condense the first three chapters of this fic into one, and edit them as she went. So, there are some changes, but nothing major other than the change in number of chapters.  
> the author also wishes to express her excitement at this story, and promises to try and keep updating soon.

XXX

It wouldn't be accurate to call it an awakening. He didn't wake up from pleasant dreams, to the call of a clock. Everything was nothing before his eyes opened, and afterwards wasn't much better. He wasn't in a bed, surrounded by blankets. There was no sun to greet him.

It's better to say he was born. Born into a world of death that had hidden its sun before he ever got there. Born from a cruelty, a dishonesty, a barter that led to an abomination, a body without a mind. 

Later, when they questioned him on what he remembered, he would see their faces, their confusion. He remembered beds, blankets, but not his own room. He knew what a dream was, but couldn't recall his nightmare of a life.

Well, he was bitterly happy to forget. He didn't want their sorrow. He didn't want to know why he was there, or even why he didn't remember. He just wanted it all to quiet again. He wanted the silence of nothing again. He didn't want to see, to breathe. It was too much. They asked too much of him. He had no way of doing what they begged him to, of easing their pain. It made him wish he hadn't been born. It made him hate whoever it is they wanted back. It made him want to do everything in his power to ease their pain. But that wasn't possible.

He couldn't help them. He wasn't Magnus Burnsides. He wasn't sure what he was.

xxx

He woke up on a soft sofa, surrounded by many nervous faces. His shoulder was killing him, and he was naked under a blanket. Fear seized him, and he shot upwards, his head colliding with someone's nose.

The dwarf, (His captor? Ally? Who were these people, where was he?) slapped his hands onto his face and chortled, strangely pleased.  
"Ah, Magnus, glad to see you're up!" He grinned even as blood began to seep out of his nose.

He let a moment slip by to corner his confusion, to focus, and then he went to work. He lept off the sofa, pushing past the group and grabbing the most vulnerable looking one, an old, dark-skinned woman. He pulled her into a headlock, tight enough for her to not break free but loose enough not to hurt her. After all, he had no idea who these people were or what they wanted. They could be friendly farmers or something.

"Alright, okay, I don't want any trouble. At least, not any more than already. So, uh, what's going on, exactly?" He tried to speak in a commanding tone, but that was undermined by the cracks and creaks in his voice. It sounded like he hadn't spoken in a month.

The group all stood back, stunned but unmoving. There was a silence that made his back tense. Why were they so still?

"Mags?"

His eyes shot to the elf that had spoken. He was tall, brown skin, brown eyes, hair that looked greasier than usual - wait.

What?

"Maggie?"

"What?"

The elf let out a breath, looking less scared than he had before. "Jeez, you gave me a scare-"

"No, what? What is this? Who are you, where am I?" He was getting more terrified by the second. He grasped for a clue, his eyes searching the room for a window to see what time it was, what time- where they were and - what and - who -

Shit he couldn't remember anything at all. He didn't know how he got here, or who these people were, or anything. Anything. Nothing.

The woman in his arms let out a strangled gasp, and he quickly dropped her. He had squeezed too tightly in his fear, and now she crumpled down at his feet and looked up at him with her hands rubbing her throat. She looked too young to be old.

"What happened? What happened to me, what did you- who," he gasped for breath and stumbled back into a table. His hands scrambled for a grasp on the edge.

He looked at the group, and expected malice, or joy at his panic. They had obviously done something to him, so they would be glad to see him in a panic. But all he saw was his own terror reflected back at him. Another elf, just like the first, except for her blue eyes, was holding a man close. There was a lizard-looking woman close to tears. A gnome who looked sorrowful. The woman, still dumbstruck, on the floor. Others around them, all looking various shades of loss and despair.

"What the fuck is this, what's happening? What did you do to me?" He yelled, his throat hurting from disuse. Something was burning his throat up from the inside out.

They just stared at him. He felt tears threatening to spill over. He had never felt so scared, so new.  
Nobody spoke, they just watched him try to keep it together. He couldn't breathe, he felt like he was going to pass out. They looked on. He tried to remember something, anything, and when he came up empty, his tears began to fall. They looked on. He then thought of how he must seem, how they must all find this so amusing, so funny, how he was so empty inside, so hollow. He began to cry. They looked on. He searched their faces, and saw nothing but horror, pity. He was horrifying, he was pitiful. He heaved and sobbed. They still looked on.

He fell to his knees, swiping at his face and pulling at his hair. His head was useless, full of nothing but water that spouted from every crack. He looked at his hands and down at his body, how he was so vulnerable, and began to scratch and pull at his skin, willing himself to feel it. He didn't know what to do, he didn't know anything he didn't know he didn't know he didn't know -

Finally, finally, his hands were pulled away from himself. The elf, the first one, and the nosebleed dwarf, had grabbed them, one on each side of him. He felt something being wrapped around him, around his shoulders, draped over him. His head was so cloudy, he let them do it. What else could he do?

He felt someones hands on his temple. They were sticky, and pink. He looked up and saw the dwarf. He was whispering something soft. He thrashed, trying to break free. They were trying to keep him, they just wanted him to forget again. He held onto consciousness, onto the little bit of life he had made and put into his head. He wanted to stay awake, he wanted to remember this. It was scary, but it was all he had.

With his head thrashing, he caught sight of his hands, both now held by the brown-eyed elf. He had skin under his nails, dark like his skin, but tinted strangely green, and he didn't know why that pushed him over the edge, but it did, and he leaned over and heaved, and his vomit was a bright green and smelled like salt, and he threw up even more, then fell under the dwarf's spell and slipped into sleep. 

xxx

"What now? How do we..."

"We should take him to his room,"

"No, no, that might be too much for him right now. He might hurt himself, we need someone to watch him."

"No, what? I still don't understand, what's happened? Why did he hurt you, what's going on?"

"He doesn't remember anything, Lup,"

"So, he's got amnesia or something? That's fixable, we can fix that... what?"

"We can't. It's not his mind, it's his body. It's... it's not really his, it never made any of those memories. He hasn't forgotten it, he just never went through it at all,"  
 

 

"Oh my god."  
 

 

"So he's... gone?"

 

   
"Who's fucking idea was this? What the fuck?"  
"It was Garfield, he had a-"  
"Oh god. Oh god, no-"  
"Magnus wanted it, said he needed his body again-"  
"Who let this happen?"  
"He knew the risks-"  
"He was wooden, wood can't feel, trust me, I know-"  
"No, no! What?"  
"How could you! How could you let him-"  
"Stop, stop! Stop it, stop! You're all not helping, this won't help him! Stop yelling!"  
 

"Taako..."

"No. Don't, not now. I can't-"  
   
   
 

"I'll watch him. I'll take care of him, put him in the guest room. Let him sleep."

xxx

His eyes shot open, and he saw bright green, and tasted salt. He thrashed against the pod, but it was shut tight, he couldn't get out. The water was in his eyes, his chest, his throat, and it burned, he was on fire, he had to take a breath but he was only sucking in death. He gasped and shook and he was drowning, drowning before he even knew anything, he had things to do, he had forgotten something, someone who needed him, what was he supposed to be doing what had he forgotten-

His eyes slipped open and he saw a tan ceiling. He shot up, jumping out of the bed. However, the jumping part was unsuccessful, as he was tangled in the sheets, and he promptly tripped over them and found his face had collided with the rug.

He caught his breath, thankful to be breathing air and not water, and slowly raised himself to his elbows. He heard a soft chuckle coming from above him. He looked over, and found a pair of sandals on short legs. He looked up, and saw the dwarf, now with a bandage on his nose. He was smiling down at him, holding a tray of something over his head, like he had to swiftly moved it out of the warpath.

"Welp. Glad to see some things never change."

xxx

They kept him locked in a room. It was just a soft bed, a window that looked out into the dark sky, and a shelf loaded with books and books of maps. It was a nice room, but again. Locked up.

Most days, he just slept. The dwarf brought him food, new books, and spoke with him in quiet tones. Everyday, he would wake up in the morning to the dwarf making tea.

("Why tea?"

The dwarf looked at him over his glasses. "You love tea.")

They would eat breakfast in silence, then the dwarf would ask him questions.

"What's your name?"

"I don't know."

"Where are we?"

"I don't know."

"Do you remember me?"

"No."

"Can you remember anything?"

"No."

After the questioning, which was unchangingly frustrating for both of them, the dwarf let him be.

He spent the hours before lunch dozing, or reading from the pile of books on the shelf. The time passed slowly, until the dwarf came back with lunch and they sat down to eat again.

The food was heavenly. Nothing he had ever tasted compared. Which wasn't saying much, he couldn't remember any other food. But still.

They chowed down, studying each other. The dwarf was tan, but looked the opposite of rested and relaxed. He wore Hawaiian shirts, but they were in space, not on vacation. And the dark circles under his eyes only seemed to get deeper.

And he always looked the same. He had on the flannel pajamas they had given him, and he was always rested, but still. A captive.

Sometimes, after lunch, he had a visitor. It was usually the old woman he had threatened. She showed up with bruises on her throat, and he wanted to hurl himself into space.

She would sit down, and begin speaking. She spoke of trivial stuff, what book he was reading, what he had for lunch, what he had for breakfast, how he was sleeping. Sometimes, the things she said came out like static, made him dizzy, and he couldn't understand it. He told her this every time, but she went on like it was normal. She would speak for a long time, then sit for a long time, looking at nothing. She seemed lonely.

When she left, the dwarf came back with dinner. They ate, then he left, and then he slept. It was a nice routine, as far as prisons went.

xxx

"This isn't working."

"I know."

"He's not remembering anything."

"I know."

"My tea isn't working, and I've gone through all the memory charms I know."

"I know."

"And none of your talking helps if he can't understand half of what you say."

"I know."

"We need to inoculate him."

"No. We wait."

"Why? What's keeping us?"

"We don't know how much he'll remember, or how taking both fish juices at once may affect even a normal body. We don't have much left of Fisher as it is. And a clone, built in only a month? With a mind barely attached inside it? It may harm him."

"Anything is better for him than this. He still thinks he's being held against his will."

"He may well be. We must remember, this isn't Magnus."  
 

 

"Christ, Lucretia."

"What? It's the truth. Men are made by their experiences. He has none of the ones he used to. He is not the same, and therefore may not want the same things. We have to face the facts that he may want to leave, and we have no moral right to keep him here. Even if he does remember, he will never be Magnus again."

"How can you be so calm? How are you so goddamn distant? This is Magnus fucking Burnsides we're talking about!"

"No. He's not. Magnus is, for all intents and purposes, gone. Don't inoculate him until we know what will happen. This meeting is over."

xxx

"Do you remember anything? Anything before waking up?" The dwarf asked for the four hundredth fucking time.

"For the four hundredth fucking time, no. I don't remember anything at all. Nothing, nada!" He fisted his hands in the sheets of his bed. It had been at least two weeks of this. Wake up, eat, questions, sleep. Rinse, repeat. Christ, his head hurt.

He hated being the dumbest in the room. He hated that everyone who talked to him knew more than him, and expected him to keep up with absolutely zero help. He was getting headaches more and more, and no one told him anything, they just brought more tea and more food and different books and meaningless conversations. He hated being their fucking test subject.

"Hey, here's an idea: why don't I ask some questions, and you answer them?" He said tightly. He was gonna break this guy's nose again if he didn't help him.

The dwarf glanced at him. He looked exhausted. His glasses were crooked from wiping his forehead so much, and he had dark circles under his eyes. He sighed, then nodded.

"Cool. Okay. What's my name?"

The dwarf stilled. He opened his mouth, and static came out. His headache worsened.

"Perfect. What's that static?"

"I can't tell you, it's um. Complicated."

"Fuck you. Alright, moving on. Where are we?"

The dwarf's eyebrows scrunched together. He opened his mouth, and more static.

"Right. Alright. So there's a spell that keeps you from telling me anything? Great, that's fun."  
The dwarf looked like he was gonna be sick, but he couldn't bring himself to give a shit.

"Is there anyway for me to stop hearing the static?"

The dwarf looked at him. His eyes looked worried. He looked away quickly, towards the floor. 

It was silent for a little bit. He didn't want to push it. He was too tired, and his headache was killing him.

The dwarf suddenly shifted, and reached into his back pocket. His hands brought out a small vial of blue and purple water. "Drink this. It'll help."

He looked down at the vial. It could be poison. It could stop the static. It could just be fruit punch.

Well. He had nothing to lose. 

He swallowed it all in one gulp.

The only thing the drink does is help with the headache.

The dwarf watches him like he expects him to explode, but nothing happens. The room stops its spinning, his ears stop aching, and his throat isn't as dry.

"What was this supposed to do again?" He asked him, looking down in confusion.

"It allows you to hear me when I tell you this; you're name is Magnus Burnsides, you are as close as family to us, and we aren't keeping you here because you're an experiment, or because we pity you, but because you're too much of a goddamn danger to yourself right now to be anywhere else."

The dwarf's face had gotten even red, and he seemed very frustrated. He didn't look at him.

"Magnus what-sides?"

The dwarf's face blanched. His arms dropped to his sides, and he stared beyond his shoulder, at the wall. He didn't move for a very long time, until he did.

He left without another word.

xxx

"It just-" he heaved a deep breath, "I kinda had hoped that it would snap him back. That he would drink it and everything would be fine. I knew, like, that that wasn't realistic, but I still hoped, and now."

Merle looked up at Davenport, his eyes dark. "Now there's really nothing left to try. He still doesn't remember, and he probably never will again."

Davenport's heart in his chest. Life, even after a hundred years of hell, still had a talent of fucking them over.

xxx

Lup was the one who insisted on the meeting.

"He can understand us now, he deserves to have all the facts. He fucking- we have to tell him. Everything."

The others gathered were quiet. None of them could think of any reasons to keep him from the truth.

"And-" Carey halted. She closed her eyes, then continued. "And then, after we tell him, what then?"

"We allow him to decide for himself what to do." Lucretia said simply.

"And if that involves leaving? Can we allow him to leave the base, with all he knows? He could compromise everything." Davenport said softly.

The group tasted the bitter truth of what he said.

"We have no right to stop him." Lucretia said, almost inaudible.

Taako got up from the table, and slammed the door behind him.

xxx

Two days after drinking the dwarf's Kool-aid, he finally sees him again. 

In the interim, the old lady had brought him his food and new books. She hadn't said much to him, which was what made him worry. He didn't know these people, but they hadn't hurt him. They had kept him healthy, and he didn't know them, but they seemed nice, and he had been very unwelcoming.

And if the dwarf told the truth, and he was Magnus Burnsides and they were family. Well.

She came in, wearing a very nice robe, and stood by his bed. She had an outfit in her hands that was definitely not her style. And she had left the door open behind her.

He eyed it. He could just. Run out. Right now. He could leave, punch his way out. The door was unlocked. This was his chance.

 

So why wasn't he running?

The woman followed his eyes to the door, and sighed. "If you want to leave, we won't stop you."

She turned her striking gray eyes on his face, and his gaze was held.  
"But if you want answers, you can get dressed and follow me."

She held out the clothes, and he let out a rush of air, and took them.

Fuck it. He had, literally, nothing to lose.

xxx

The clothes fit him perfectly. They had even rubbed thin in all the places his pajamas had. And they were his favorite color- red.

After he got dressed, the woman nodded, and turned and swept out of the room. He bit his lip and followed.

She was fast, with purpose, and more sprightly than you'd expect from somebody of her age. They walked down echoing hallways. 

They didn't see anybody. The place was very clean, white walls without stains, metal floors without streaks. It was all very impressive.

And he thought all that before they even left the building.

It was easy to forget you were in space inside, but once they left the building, it was incredibly hard. 

The sky was so wide, so many stars, and nothing in between him and cold space but some spells. It was fantastic.

As he followed the woman across the grassy (Real grass! In space!) courtyard, he turned around to see what his home for the past weeks looked like from the outside. It looked like a tennis court building. Was there an actual name for those things? He twisted his head to see more, and caught sight of a huge scorch mark on the ground, black, in the shape of a circle.

His eyes scanned the yard, and he saw that there were many of these marks on the grass, and there was ash floating around in some places. The buildings around had some broken windows, and everything smelled of smoke.

He stumbled a little, jarring himself, and saw that the woman had gotten quite ahead of him. He turned away from the marks to keep up.

She turned towards a dome near the middle of the base, and the doors split open for them.

And they were greeted by a silence filled with eyes. He shuddered. That thought made him nervous, even more than the room before him, filled to the brim with people, who all stared at him, slack-jawed and wide-eyed.

The crowd parted for the woman, and he saw that they were crowded around a table. She motioned towards the seat in front of them, empty, and at the head of the table. He sat down gingerly. The chair was weird, too futuristic. Plastic. He had always preferred wood. 

Wait, what? 

Before he could follow that train of thought, the gathered crowd began to whisper, presumably about him.

On his right was the dwarf. He nodded, and the dwarf smiled tightly. He looked exhausted. A lizard lady sat next to him, and smiled warmly. She had an empty chair next to her.

On his left was the brown-eyed elf. He was staring into his lap. The blue-eyed elf was next to him, and she winked, though it seemed less than enthusiastic. Next to her was a chubby man, who was going over some notes, and who's glasses kept slipping down his nose.

And across the table, standing next to the other head of the table, was the woman, and a ginger dwarf he had never seen before.

Or he had, he just couldn't fucking remember.

They were speaking to each other softly. She was looking rather lost, and he was patting her shoulder. After a bit, he stepped forward, and in a surprisingly commanding voice, he called for silence.

When it was granted, he nodded, and began. "Thank you. Lucretia will take it from here." And sat down in the chair next to the lizard woman.

Short and sweet. He can dig that.

The woman, Lucretia, no longer looking so lost, stepped forward. "Captain Davenport has expressed to me his wish that I lead procedures such as this from now on, as I am the best acquainted with all the facts." She looked down to the gnome, and he smiled and nodded, as if to say 'keep going'.

She looked back up. "He also wished for me to express that, due to my experience during his... ah... absence, that I be made an honorary captain. So, yo-ho, and all that."

The crowd seemed to let out a collective breath, and even a few laughs were heard, though they seemed a bit forced.

"So. On to business." She said, and sat down with dignified grace.

The room tensed again.

"Magnus."

He froze. It took him a second to realize they expected him to respond to that name.

"Um." His voice was shaking. Damn, he hated being the center of attention. "Yes?"

Lucretia folded her hands on the table. "We have kept a great deal from you, and we all are, truly, deeply sorry for it. It has caused you great pain, and has caused much harmful speculation to the people of the Bureau."

At this, she looked to the room. "We know you have all worried, and we apologize to you, as well. You deserve to know what happened."

The crowd didn't seem to be very satisfied with her apology, but to him, her face creased in a way, and her voice curved the air on its way to his ears that he, he truly believed that they were sorry for whatever they'd done. He sniffed a little. 

She turned her eyes back to him. "So, if you'll allow it, we'd like to lay out all the facts for you, to the best of our ability. You have a right to them, Istus knows."

He gulped, and nodded.

She slowly returned the nod, and then pressed her palms into the table.

"Alright, people. Look sharp. Let's begin."

XXX


	2. The Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A long one, thats for sure. Also super exposition heavy, and lots of dialogue. But, it's needed. Gotta catch yall up to speed
> 
> no warnings

XXX

Angus McDonald was a very lonely boy.

He was virtually alone in the world, had lost what family he had had left before he had come to the Bureau. His grandpa, who had raised him on kindness, and numerous lessons of detection and intuition, had passed away. He didn't have much to tether him to the world, other than his work and three very silly adventurers he met on a train ride. 

They were wonderful, if a bit mean, but well. That's how families are, sometimes. And they were a family, now. After all they've been through.

Taako, Merle, Magnus. They teased him, but he knew them, and they knew him. And they respected him, and his knowledge. They had grown so close, they had even trusted him on missions to guide them. He was so happy here, among his friends, who didn't look at him like he was being dumb, and who trusted him enough to put their lives in his hands. 

He was happy. Was.

In the chaos that the Hunger's invasion brought, Angus had been left in the dust. Taako and Merle fought with the monsters, and within their own family, and Angus, small and weak and novice as he is, went unnoticed. Not even Magnus could include him, push him to speak up, as he did, because Magnus was gone. 

And now, Taako hadn't spoken to anyone, let alone Angus, in weeks. Merle walked around in a stupor, exhausted and too wrapped up in taking care of a friend who didn't remember him. The Bureau was left to bury their dead, and heal the wounded, with no contact to their powers. Even Madame Director, who had welcomed Angus with open arms into this world, was shut off from everyone, shunned for being the cause of this mess.

He was completely alone. Again.

xxx

"Please withhold your questions until the end." Lucretia began. 

"Us seven: Davenport, Barry, Lup, Taako, Merle, you, and I, came from a different world than this. A different universe." 

Well, she waisted no time with exposition.

"We met as part of the IPRE, the Institute of Planar Research and Exploration. We were assembled as a team to explore the outer reaches of the planar system. However, our plans changed, as on the day we left, the Hunger attacked our planet."

The crowd bristled. A gruff orc woman, who stood behind the lizard woman, stomped her foot, and the clang it made on the metal floor resounded and quieted the murmurs. 

"Thank you, Killian." Lucretia resumed. "We had no idea what it was at first. However, we soon found out, as it began following us."

She closed her eyes, as if steadying herself. "We began to jump from planet to planet, plane to plane. Something had happened while we ran, something very-"

"Jiggly. Shit got jiggly," interjected the blue-eyed elf. 

"Yes, that's correct, shit got very jiggly. We crossed a threshold we didn't anticipate, and we were caught in a loop for nearly a century, visiting countless planets, attempting to circumvent the destruction that the Hunger would bring."

The audience was silent, all listening intently.

"Over the century, we discovered a few things; after a year, the Hunger would find us, and attempt to destroy the planet. However, as long as one person survived, we would be... reset, and find ourselves on the ship again, in the atmosphere of a different world. We also learned what the Hunger was after."

She paused. "'The Light of Creation'. The power source used on our ship, and possibly used in the creation of the planar universe. The Hunger wanted it desperately. So we tried to find it, in as many years as possible, to prevent it from falling into his hands. And every time we didn't, the Hunger would arrive, guided by it's scouts and attracted by the intense, um, crave-ability of the Hunger."

"We spent almost a century running from the Hunger, and eventually, we decided that enough was enough. We had established a connection with the Hunger; however, that was virtually fruitless."

Merle's face darkened. 

"We had then found a planet with creatures that could erase memories. The void fish came from that planet." 

The crowd began to speak again, much louder. The orc, Killian, had to give a shout along with her stomp to quiet them.

"We were able to save the creature, but not the planet." She sighed. "Ms. Taaco and Mr. Bluejeans even became liches to assist our endeavors."

The blue-eyed elf and the bespectacled man glanced at each other, small smiles present on their faces.

"But nothing was working. So we proposed a plan to put an end to our running."

She leaned forward in her seat. "We had calculated that, if we decreased the signal of the Light, we could hide it from the Hunger permanently. We waited for a cycle to come with a suitable planet and an early capture of the Light. Such a year occurred here, in this world. So, with the skill of artificing we had learned in one of the cycles, we split the light's power into seven parts, applied it to seven artifacts, and to ensure they were craved enough, allowed them to circulate in this world."

And at this, the surrounding crowd exploded into sound. 

Yells of anger and surprise rippled through everyone surrounding the table. He jumped in his seat, surprised, his eyes swiveling quickly, trying to catch onto what had upset them.

Killian yelled, and waved her arms, trying to get people to calm down. Lucretia sat with her eyes fixed on the table, the picture of unfazed. Most others around the table looked shameful, tortured. They all sat in silence as the noise around them increased.

All of them, except for the blue-eyed elf, Ms. Taaco. She suddenly stood up, frustration plain on her face, and raised one hand above her head. And he could see, in the light hanging above the table, that her hand was clear. It was see through. He stared right through it, and saw the ceiling behind. His eyes widened.

And then her palm exploded into light, and he quickly shut his eyes. Groans of pain followed, as the room was flashed with a blinding spell.

The light remained, even after the groans sputtered out. He left his eyes closed, allowed his sight to go red behind his eyelids.

"We knew the risks." The elf called out in a loud voice. "We knew, what putting those relics into the world would do. And we know, now, that the blood shed is on our hands. Our relics, they-" she let out a shaky breath, "They caused so much pain, and so much death. And we are so, so sorry. But you have to trust us, when we say, that if we hadn't done this, then things would have been a million times worse, for millions more people. The Hunger would have kept coming, and coming, and coming, until there was nothing left. We did this, so that worlds, worlds of people, didn't have to die. And it, it sucks, because they aren't worth more than you, than this incredible world, but they- they aren't worth less, either. Nobody deserved to die. All our options, they were the wrong ones." She sucked in a breath.

"But it had to end, it had- it had to stop. It had to."

The light dimmed, slowly, in the stillness of the room, and he opened his eyes again. He saw that the elf had slumped down into her seat, her face in her hands. He shoulders shook, and the man beside her scooted closer.

And, for the first time since he had sat down, he saw the brown-eyed elf move. The elf's hand moved from his own lap, towards hers, and he thought he would rest it on her thigh, reassuring her, but it halted, and rested on the arm of her chair. 

Magnus considered them. They were twins, that was painfully obvious. The same brown skin, pointed ears, and blonde hair. But when he looked closer, he saw that her body was fuzzy, the same clearness of her hand. She was as solid as air. There was no thigh to rest on. They couldn't touch.

"Lup is right. The Hunger had to be stopped, and so we chose to make the relics. Our decision. Our fault." Lucretia's voice sounded tiny in the deafening silence. "I'm so sorry to have lied to all of you."

She looked back up, and her eyes were glassy. "I saw all of the death, and destruction, and I knew that we had caused it. So," and she raised her chin, "I made everyone forget. Everyone. I fed the records of our century to the void fish, and everyone on this planet forgot the existence of the Relics. Including my- my team."

"I found places for you, when I could." She just addressed the people seated, now. "Lup had disappeared, and Barry, I would find out, had ended his life to assume his lich form and remember everything. Davenport forgot everything but his name, so I kept him with me, to keep him safe. I gave Merle a home on a beach, Taako a career in celebrity cooking, and you, Magnus..."

She looked at him sadly, "I got you a job, and a home, in Ravensroost."

That meant absolutely nothing to him, but she said it like it was a death sentence. 

"And then I set out to find the relics. I retrieved my relic easily. And when I had trouble retrieving the next one, I created the Bureau of Balance, with the help of the Millers. I recruited people to assist the search for the relics, to safely extract them from the world below, and bring them back together."

"In the beginning, it didn't work well. The people I recruited, in being inoculated and remembering the countless years I had taken from them, were distraught, and again lost hope, or were unable to resist the thrall of the relics. And then," And she moved her eyes over the three opposite her. Magnus, the dwarf, the brown-eyed elf. "You three came back to me. You found and retrieved the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet, and joined the Bureau. Even without your memories, you-" She stopped herself. 

"I used the void fish's child to ensure that you wouldn't remember the Hunger, while able to remember the Relic War. Drink from the mother, remember the relics. But without the child's inoculation, you wouldn't remember the origins of these relics."

"You retrieved the remaining six relics, and brought them back to me. And with their power, I was able to enact a barrier around this plane, keeping the Hunger out."

She sighed, and looked up. "And that's brings us to now."

"I would have to disagree." The dwarf next to him said after a few moments, in a tight voice. "You forgot some key details. You forgot to mention that, in bringing the relics together again, the Hunger was signaled, and found us, and is now waiting outside our front fucking door."

"You also forgot that the barrier was against all of our wishes," said the gnome in an undertone.

"You also neglected to mention that your barrier cut off this plane from every other plane, and that now our days are numbered." the lizard woman chimed in. "Or that now an angry mob of thousands reside right below us, demanding it to be taken down."

"And you elected to leave out the fact that that power is solely in your hands, along with the currently missing Light of Creation, and the missing baby void fish, which has the power to make us all forget that this is all your fault." Ms. Taaco sniffed. 

"You also completely left out how Magnus forgot his memories, which was kinda the point of this meeting." Mr. Bluejeans murmured.

The room stood still, their faces pointed like knives at Lucretia.

"Of course. Well." And she looked at Magnus again, something like fear in her eyes. "They summed up the first few points quite well, but."

She cleared her throat, then continued. "Magnus, in retrieving the final relic, your physical body was stolen from you, and you took possession of a wooden mannequin. However, you soon discovered that the Bureau's deals warlock had been creating a clone of your body, for reasons unknown. You elected to attempt to possess this new body, and were successful, but in the process, you lost all of your memories."

"Alright. Now, that's it. Questions?"

Every hand in the room went up.

xxx

Angus McDonald was a very quiet boy. 

They had searched for a long time, panic causing them to forget their wounds and to look until they had found Magnus. Angus had gone along, had conducted his search with Carey, and they had been the successful party. 

They'd found him in the back of the Fantasy Costco, after the fighting was finally over. He was on the floor, facedown. He had head trauma, from where something had knocked him out. His clothes and weapons were laid on the table next to him, along with a note from Taako. Unread, unseen.

In all the bustle to get him to a healer, only to find out that healers could no longer heal, to gather his things and to figure out what had happened, no one saw the little boy, forgotten, unnoticed, slip something into his pocket from the scene.

xxx

Lucretia scanned all the hands. She attempted to count, but gave up. 

"Alright. Here's the deal. Each of you with a question will approach someone with a seat at the table, excluding Magnus, who will, I'm sure, have his own, and myself, as I'm sure most of your questions will be for me." She smiled dryly.

"You will give the seated members your question. They will ask me, so we can avoid repeats, and save time. Let's take a short recess to act this out."

"Christ." The dwarf muttered, "This'll take forever."

The people around him started shuffling towards the table. No one approached, or even acknowledged him, yet he still felt their eyes on him. 

A paper and a pencil slid to a stop in front of him on the table. He looked up at Mr. Bluejeans, who smiled weakly. He was passing out paper to everyone at the table. 

He looked back down. He picked up the pencil. He didn't know what he wanted to ask, he had so many questions. He felt like an absolute fool. 

He began to write.

xxx

Angus McDonald was a very sneaky boy.

The Bureau wide meeting was currently happening several domes away from where he was. He was relying on it taking a very long time. 

He strolled down the abandoned halls, into the dais room. The roof still had a gaping hole from where the Hunger had broken it. He passed by the rubble, and the piles of ash, and approached the Director's office. 

The door was easy to open. No one had bothered locking it again, after Taako and Merle and he had broken in. And it was also almost hanging off its hinges, so.

Angus walked in and scanned the room. He got out his detective's kit, and went to work.

xxx

After about half an hour, everybody had finally finished passing their questions forward. 

Taako had hoped that no one would come towards him. He was on edge already. He kept glancing at Magnus, a Magnus who didn't act like Magnus. He kept stopping himself from reaching for his sister's hand, which wasn't there anymore. He couldn't talk, because if he did, then he wouldn't be able to stop. He had to stay still, because if he moved, he would fall to pieces.

But, despite his struggle, the world moved without him. Dozens of people came up to him, dictated the same questions to him over and over. His hand shook, his writing was atrocious. He could barely hear them speak, the noise in his head was so loud. 

Finally, the bureau members ran out of things to ask. Things quieted down. Except for a small scratching sound, directly to his left. He looked over. Magnus was still writing. He was biting his lip, and looked upset. 

Taako wanted nothing more than to reach over and touch his hand, his shoulder. He wanted to tell him it was gonna be okay. They were here, with him, on his side, wholly and completely. 

But it wouldn't help. He still wouldn't know him. He would look up, confused, and wouldn't recognize him.

He probably didn't even know his name.

"Alright, break over. Has everyone given their questions?" Lucretia's eyes checked the room. "Good. Davenport will go first, asking all of his questions. The other members will cross out matching questions, and we will go around until there are no questions other than Magnus' left."

She looked to Davenport, who nodded, and looked down at his paper. 

"All of these are direct dictations. First one: 'So you knew about the Hunger this whole time, yet you didn't warn any of us?'"

Lucretia nodded. "Yes. You were all inoculated against the Hunger. I planned to put up the barrier without anyone noticing, so the knowledge of the Hunger wasn't necessary to the processes Bureau."

The crowd exclaimed. Taako grit his teeth.

Lucretia put up a hand. "Please, let's save the exclamations. Let's just assume that you all will be upset by everything I say."

Taako wasn't listening anymore. He was looking at Magnus. Who was still writing questions on his paper.

"Okay. Next. 'Which relic did you make?'"

"I made the Bulwark Staff."

"'Where is the seventh relic?'"

"It was condensed into the Light along with the other six."

"'Where is the Light?'"

She paused. 

"No."

Davenport stared at her. "No what?"

"I won't answer that."

The crowd cried out in protest. Taako cringed. This was awful already.

"And if we make you answer?" Davenport replied, loud enough to calm commotion.

"You can't. Everyone is now completely disconnected from the plane of magic, and the ethereal plane. You couldn't cast a spell if you wanted to, and I'm strong enough to overcome charmed objects." Lucretia's lips were pressed in a thin line. "I'll answer as many questions as you want, but I never guaranteed I'd answer all of them."

Magnus had been staring at them, and he began to write furiously again when she stopped.

xxx

Noelle was low on power. She had been hacking for hours. She scanned the courtyard again. Nobody. They were still in the meeting. 

But she was almost done, so it didn't matter the hour, the power, or any possible witnesses. 

She retracted her hacking arm from the socket. She was done here. She walked towards the rendezvous point, dejected. She hadn't found anything.

xxx

After the crowd quieted again, Davenport and Lucretia got into a rhythm. The crowd stayed mostly silent, except for when she refused to answer a question. Her answers were short, and with every one, the crowd became more upset.

"'What are we going to do about the crowd below us?'"

"Nothing."

"'What are we going to do about the barrier?'"

"Nothing."

"'How did you - what the- how did you make contact with the Hunger?' Again, exact quote."

"Merle?" She looked across the table at him, raising his eyebrows for him to answer. 

However, he couldn't answer, as was dead asleep, his head in his hands. Magnus slowly reached over and nudged his elbow. He twitched, and sat up straight. "Y'ello?" He mumbled. 

"Can you explain your contact with the Hunger?" Lucretia asked, looking completely unimpressed.

"Oh. Sorry, I'm just- of course. I parleyed with him." He said. "That means, I had a meeting with him in the extra-dimensional place. 'Him', being the Hunger. He called himself Jon." He rubbed his face with his hands. "I did it at the end of every year after I learned the technique, as he would kill me at the end of each meeting."

The room stared. Carey made a halting sound, like a cross between a gasp and a grunt, and then spoke in a hoarse voice. "And you never- never tried killing him?"

Merle gave a lopsided smile at her. "Not how it worked. I invited him in, so he could do whatever he wanted to me, but I couldn't touch him. We just did it to learn more about what he wanted."

Carey looked extremely concerned, but nodded, and conversation moved on. 

The meeting continued, and the atmosphere in the room became less and less like a meeting, and more like a court hearing where the judge was the one being questioned.

"'Why won't you take the barrier down?'" Barry asked. Davenport had run out of questions. 

"It is currently the only thing between us and the Hunger. It is keeping us safe."

Barry took off his glasses and placed them on the table. He ran a hand through his hair, staring at his list of questions. Taako recognized the nervous ticks. He was dreading asking the next question.

"'What- what's next?'" 

The was a long silence. Lucretia was staring at the table again. 

"I don't know. The barrier is up, and will not be coming down. What's next is up to you."

Barry blinked, then looked back down at his paper. "'You made our choices for us. The wrong choice. You used us, lied to us, and abused our trust. Many of us died for you, and for your cause. How can we ever trust you again?'"

Lucretia looked at Barry. Her face emptied of emotion completely. 

"You can't."

Her gaze returned to the table.

"Um." A soft voice came from Taako's left. Magnus spoke in a whisper that seemed to be a shout in the silence. "I'm sorry to interrupt, I just. I ran out of paper."

Everyone stared at him. Taako looked as Barry slid another sheet across the table. Watched as one of Magnus' hands, large and missing scars, caught it, and immediately began to write. He saw the other paper was filled with questions, and bullet points. 

Questions and notes. 

He was taking notes?

Taako was gonna be sick.

Barry swallowed, and kept going.

"'Where is the void fish child? How do we know you won't use it's powers against us, to make us forget all about the other planes, and the Hunger, and everything?'"

Lucretia sighed. "You don't know. You don't have any proof but my word that I'll never make you forget ever again. But I know how much my word is worth-"

"I have a question!" Taako interrupted loudly. Now the room stared at him. He just focused on Lucretia. He could feel Magnus' eyes on him.

"Are we allowed to leave?"

"The base? Of course, no one is being kept here-"

"No, no not that. This. The meeting. It's been two hours." 

Lucretia's lips pressed together again. "When there are no more questions, then the meeting can be adjourned."

"Alright! Any more questions? No?" He was greeted with silence. "Great! Goodbye."

He pushed away from the table and began pushing through te crowd. 

"Taako!" He stopped, but he didn't turn around.

"We have to answer Magnus' questions, still. Will you at least stay for that?" Merle pleaded. 

Taako inhaled slowly, then let it out again. He couldn't cry here. Not here.

"You don't need me for that."

And he left, the door sliding shut behind him. 

xxx

Angus McDonald was a very observant boy.

It was what made him such a good detective. It also made him very good at puzzles. He detected things easily. 

Ever since he was very little, he could see through a lie faster than most adults. He also had a hobby of putting together 1,000 piece puzzles. He could solve a theft, solve a murder, find a needle in a haystack. 

Surprisingly, he was having trouble finding a floating jellyfish the size of a toddler. Or any sign of a huge spaceship. Or the power source that fueled the universe's creation. 

And he was getting very frustrated with himself. 

He had gone through every drawer, every hidden compartment. Every dome on the base was empty of evidence. He couldn't find anything. Nothing at all. 

And he had run out of time. He looked out the window, and saw people leaving the briefing dome. He had run out of time, and now he had to leave, and who knew when the next chance to investigate would come?

As he began to despair, he happened to glance at the corner of the window, where the window met the wall. A piece of paper caught his eye. It was stuffed in between the glass and the metal. 

He used his small boy hands to carefully pry it out from its hiding place. It was much larger than it looked, had just been folded very small. He unfolded it, and looked it over. 

Oh my.

He folded it up and quickly ran out of the room. He had found his lead.

xxx

After the final person shuffled out of the room, it left only those who sat at the table and Killian, who was leaning over the table, quietly speaking to the lizard woman. 

Killian stood up, and announced to the group, "Carey and I are going to get lunch. We'll leave you alone."

And they walked out together, holding hands. 

The people left at the table were quiet for a very long time, all deep in thought. His hands hurt from writing so much. He bit the inside of his cheek. This was going to take even longer than the actual meeting had. 

"Magnus? Do you wanna ask us anything?" The blue-eyed elf asked softly. 

"Um." He gulped, his mouth dry. "What are your names? I know you said, but can you tell me again?"

Nobody spoke. Many of them had paled. 

"I'm Lucretia." She began. Her knuckles were white on the edge of the chair's arms.

"I'm Barry Bluejeans." The other human said, the one with glasses.

"Lup Taaco. My brother, Taako Taaco, he just um. Left." The elf said. 

"I'm Davenport." The gnome spoke. "The lizardess next to me was Carey."

The dwarf on his left was last. "I'm Merle Highchurch." 

"Okay. Alright. Thank you. Okay, um, first question, uh-" he cleared his throat, and looked down at his paper. 

His eyes swam looking at all the words. He slowly lowered the paper down and looked back up. He inhaled deeply, steeled himself. 

"I can't ask any of these questions, not until I know this. How do I know you're telling me the truth, if there's no way to make sure? How can I know I'm who you say you are?"

They looked at each other. 

"I have plenty of pictures." Merle said. 

"Those can be faked." He replied. 

"We can show you you're room?" Barry asked. 

"I'll have no idea what any of it means to me."

"The pod. We show him Garfield's pod. It hasn't been cleaned up yet, has it?" Davenport posed the question to Lucretia. 

"No, it hasn't."

"How will that prove anything, though?"

"It proves that his current body is still very new, and not one that has grown from childhood, but one that has grown from magic. Along with the pictures we have of him, which show off his numerous scars, now missing from his body." 

Lucretia stood up. "Let's break for lunch, and meet in the Fantasy Costco afterwards. Merle, you take Magnus to get food, and bring your pictures to the meeting."

Following her lead, everyone stood up. Magnus frantically stuffed his papers into his pocket.

"Alright. This meeting is adjourned."

xxx

Killian and Carey approached Noelle quietly. They were meeting in the shadow of a building not far from the briefing dome, and they couldn't risk being seen. 

"Noelle!" Carey whispered/called out.

Noelle turned and saw them. She waved. Carey waved back discreetly. 

They closed in, and stood together. 

"Well. How ya doin'?" Noelle said. 

"Noelle, there's no time for polite talk." Killian said curtly. "We have to do this fast. Did you get anything?"

Noelle's gorilla-machine body heaved in a simulation of a sigh. "No. It's like we expected. She didn't keep no incriminating records in the database."

"Shit." Killian said. "Now what? How are we ever gonna find the shit?"

"Well, madames." A small voice said to them. "I think that's a question we need to ask Mr. Lucas Miller."

And Angus smiled up at them, a large piece of paper in his hands.

xxx

Merle was silent as they left the dome. He didn't know what to do, so he just followed Merle. He looked around the yard, and saw many people walking with bags in their hands. Others were talking quietly to each other. A lot of people were walking towards one of the bigger domes. 

Merle looked at him, and followed his line of sight. "That's the dome that has all the cannons. They're leaving the base." 

"Oh." He replied. He looked back at Merle. "Will you leave?"

Merle stopped walking, and looked away. 

"No. I have to see this through." He glanced back up at him, a bitter smile plastered on his face. 

"God knows I could never face my kids again if I left their world in the dark."

"...Huh?"

"You haven't noticed?" When he shook his head, Merle sighed, and he felt even dumber than usual. 

"Of course, Magnus Burnsides, to busy watching the stars to notice the end of the world. Well, look up."

And he did, and what he saw caught his breath in his throat. 

Beyond the stars, in space, was a wall of rolling, black clouds. Flashes of light could be seen moving inside of it. It stretched as far as he could see. 

"Is that-"

"Yes."

"And it's, around the whole-"

"The whole planet. Yeah." Merle looked up at his worried face. "Lucretia may be keeping it out, but it knows were here, and it wants in. It's also blocking out the sun, which has kept the planet below in complete darkness for a month, and will eventually kill all life left down there. That is, if they don't kill themselves off before that happens."

Merle started walking away, towards a small dome he hadn't been in before. 

"C'mon. Let's eat, while we still can."

xxx

Angus McDonald was a very smart boy. 

He was taken into the Bureau because he was close enough to begin to unravel their secrets, the ones had kept his world in the dark for so long. It was either join them, or unravel all the work they'd done. 

It was an easy choice. After all, back then, it seemed as though they were saving the world, not working on plunging it into darkness.

Angus hadn't been in the room when Magnus woke up. In fact, he didn't see anyone after finding Magnus. He had been in the hangar, hiding. He was so ashamed of what he had helped do. He had helped find the relics, and they had brought so much pain, and destruction. And now, Magnus was hurt, the Bureau had fallen, and people were dying, and his family had broken apart.

He found himself crying. It was the hot kind of crying, the kind that snuck up quickly but held on for hours. It made his nose run and his face turn red. He sobbed, alone, the whimpers echoing back to him in the empty hangar. He had never felt so hopeless.

What would his grandpa think of him now?

He would probably tell him that he was worthless and it was all his fault, ans that he should give up completely because there was no use in trying to help.

Angus sniffled. No, he wouldn't say that. That was just Angus projecting his own fears onto the memory of his grandpa. His grandpa would wipe his face down, and tell him that there would be a time for that later, but now, there was work to be done. 

There was work to be done, Angus.

What had attacked? Why had it come? What had stopped it? What had hurt Magnus?

He wiped his nose and his face with his shirt collar. He didn't have time to be a baby, he had to be a grown up right now. He had to fix this, somehow. 

He sniffed and looked at what he had stolen from the crime scene. The only real evidence as to what happened. He dried his eyes again, and unfolded the note. The little blue jewel he kept tight in his fist. 

As his blurry eyes scanned the note, his eyes widened, and he slowly loosened his grip on the small jewel. 

Holy moly. 

He pocketed the note, and the jewel, and stood up. He knew what he needed to do now, but he would need help. And he also needed some questions answered.

Angus McDonald was many things. Lonely, quiet, smart. He was a complex, fully realized eleven year old, who inspired the people around him to look closer at the world. Yes, Angus was many things.

The biggest thing he was, though, was brave. He was so full of courage, and love for his family. 

And he had given himself a very important job to do.

He had to save the world.

Taako, Merle, Magnus. Madame Director. Carey. Killian. Davenport. They all needed him. 

They all needed him to be brave, and so, he was.

XXX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr is thisbitchemptee

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr is @ thisbitchemptee


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